The varieties of materials being used in society are creating a growing problem for today's technological world. The problem is the disposal of those materials that are no longer needed or wanted (hereinafter referred to as materials). These materials are generated by a large segment of our public, private, and industrial sectors, and are an increasing burden on these sectors as well as the whole country in general. Considerable researches in the fields of public health safety and environmental protection have raised the level of concern relative to the impact of these materials on our society. This has lead to an expanded definition of those materials that must be handled in a controlled manner.
The cost of disposing of materials in the U.S. is a multi-billion dollar per year industry. The capital cost of the equipment required to dispose of these materials is in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Furthermore, the handling, transporting, and management of the disposal process have continued to increase in cost.
In recent years there has been increasing concern over the disposal of materials. All businesses, industrial companies, and institutions that generate and handle these categories of materials must provide safe effective and inexpensive disposal of the materials. Also the number of materials that need to be controlled has continued to increase.
The liability for the disposal of these materials is a major concern. The liability of the users does not end with the transfer of control of these materials to disposal companies; the user is still liable after transfer of control for all future problems that may be caused by the materials. The concern over the control and safety standards for the handling of materials has lead to a whole family of regulatory Federal Acts and State regulations.
The dominant methodologies used today generally can be categorized as thermal decomposition, long-term storage, or landfills methods. The most frequently used thermal destruction techniques are various forms of incineration. All of these thermal techniques have the potential to produce volatile organics that have serious health and environmental consequences. The thermal process converts solids and liquids to gas products at some point in their destruction of the materials. Gases are much harder to control and contain which makes this process undesirable and a potential threat to society and the environment. Typical of these toxic substances are dioxins and furans which are controlled materials. Dioxins and furans are formed in off gas streams that are cooled through the temperature range from 350° C. to approximately 250° C. The use of long-term storage and landfills just delay the potential problem the materials poses for society to a later time. In the case of long-term storage, this method is viewed as delaying the solving of the problem and in fact actually increases the degree of the problem in the future.